google doesn't list my site in the first 10 pages?

asamuel

google doesn't list my site in the first 10 pages when I type Samuel Bedford

Heres the google message when I search "Samuel bedford + smugmug"

Samuel Bedford Photography London, UK. ... samuel's Home. No galleries found. Perhaps you'd like to try searching for one? It's entirely possible this ...


I dont understand why no galleries are found when I have customised each gallery to YES in "Hello world"

Any help on this is appreciated.

Thanks.

Sam

denisegoldberg

I don't think just setting hello world to yes is enough. Have you also keyworded your photos? And included gallery descriptions?

Have you seen this wiki page - http://wiki.smugmug.net/display/SmugMug/Maximize+Search+Engine+Findability? There are some hints there that should help.

On the "no galleries found" part of the listing - are your galleries public? If all of the galleries are unlisted then it could show as "no galleries found". You could easily remove that from the Google listing by extending your bio information (since the bio box is the location of the text picked up by Google and the other search engines. You could put more text in there or simply embed the description in a div and add a number of lines of spaces.

--- Denise

asamuel

Thanks Denise. the div advice was good. I hope I did it right

Bio>

[HTML]<div>[/HTML] Samuel bedford. Photographer. London UK.







[HTML]</div>[/HTML]

About appearing on a search.

1) My photographs have been keyworded for a long time. each photograph also keyworded with my name " Samuel Bedford" and samuel, bedford.

2) I dont know about gallery descriptions. I'll look into that.

3) I only really care about a name search in search engines so I would assume that would be adequate.

4) I have completed the google and Yahoo URL registration before and have just done so again.

5) my galleries are unlisted.

Haigh

If your Galleries are unlisted then google is showing exactly what users see when they go to your home page (try clicking visitor view). Nothing wrong there. If you will keep your galleries unlisted then your home page must have some text for Google to show on its search results. A bio should be fine.

Robert

asamuel

haigh

thanks for your reply, unfortunately it doesn't answer the question.

I dont mind what google says in the search description.

I only wonder why when a search is made of "samuel Bedford" the site isn't listed on the 1st or subsequent 10 pages.

N.B. Especially when I have fulfilled the key wording with "samuel Bedford" and have hello word ticked yes.

Haigh

Can´t help there. I´m not a pro and would rather not be googleized so I have no idea how to improve your search results.

Robert

denisegoldberg

asamuel wrote:

N.B. Especially when I have fulfilled the key wording with "samuel Bedford" and have hello word ticked yes.

Are you saying that you have the same keyword defined on every photo?
While that sounds like a good idea, I think that the search engines may look at that as keyword spam.

If you key my name into a search engine (I tried Google, Yahoo, and DogPile for a sanity check) my site is usually at the top of the list followed by my blog. There are some photos on my site that have my name as the keyword, but those are photos of me - and in the overall scheme of things there aren't too many of them.

I do link from my galleries to my blog, from my blog to my galleries, from my cycling journals to my galleries, from my hiking journals to my galleries though.

Did you follow all of the tips on this page - http://wiki.smugmug.net/display/SmugMug/Maximize+Search+Engine+Findability?

Also - I'm not sure how keywords on unlisted galleries play with search engines.

--- Denise

docwalker

Samuel, Google ranking is a discussion that can easily take pages. But to put it in simplest terms, the more important your page is, the higher you are ranked. Getting other sites to link to you helps. Also, having fresh relevant content really helps. If Google sees one page, ie. your homepage only as all of the galleries are unlisted you may be getting passed over. Having at least some content public will help.

You can have all of your photos keyworded but if the galleries are unlisted, Google cannot find the pages or index them. Using SmugIslands also turns Google away.

Use the tips on the maximize findability page. It really does help.

asamuel

Dear Denise and Doc.

Thanks for your responses. I understand what you're saying and appreciate the time you took to spell it out. I would like to just let you know where I've ended up.

1) if my partner googles me from safari. I'm top of the list. yet when I google myself from Firefox or explorer Im no where to be seen. I'm not expecting an expaination. surffice it to say its a bit odd.

2) I appreciate that listing my galleries would get more google recognition. but this means the gallery is visible on the homepage. I dont want to change the graphic nature of my site in anyway so I will have to lump that compromise whether I like it or not.

3) much in the same stoicism. I appreciate blogging my images will get more google recognition, but I think in this case it would be a bit over stated. Blog myself, promote my images with others? I'm not going to do it. If others did cool but I dont want to just write stuff for blatant selfpromotion in google listings. I would hope to have a bit more depth. wouldn't we all?

So I guess my hit/s and searches will come from listing my site in the appropriate places/ with the appropriate people and old fashioned direct networking for the time being.

As always. Sincere thanks.
S

richpepp

asamuel wrote:

1) if my partner googles me from safari. I'm top of the list. yet when I google myself from Firefox or explorer Im no where to be seen. I'm not expecting an expaination. surffice it to say its a bit odd.

Two things:

Can you check if either you or your partner are logged into Google when you do this. If you are logged in then Google seems to base your search results on what you have clicked through on before.

Secondly, It also seems to depend on whether you search for 'Samuel bedford' or 'samuel bedford'. I hadn't been aware that google differentiated in this way but for one you appeared as number 4 on the list and for the other you weren't on the first page at all. I can't remember which way round it was but once I had clicked through you would always appear as number 4 after that.

Richard

richpepp

...and now you always appear as number 4 - wherever I put capitals even though I repeated the test 3 or 4 times before.

confused

Richard